


Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight

by Wolfsheart



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Gender Change, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-24 09:30:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2576603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsheart/pseuds/Wolfsheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam comes back to the Avengers' HQ/home and has to explain a small new development to Natasha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight

**Author's Note:**

> There was a request of [a friend](http://elektra.wrongness.net/) recently for Sam kid!fic based on this photo that Anthony Mackie tweeted on Halloween: [Little Falcon](https://twitter.com/AnthonyMackie/status/529276447379447808/photo/1). I don't know if anyone else has written it, and I haven't written any Samfic yet, so here's my hat tossed into the ring for that request. 
> 
> Also, for the purposes of this fic, I gender-bend Sam's pararescue partner Riley. I usually don't gender-bend characters who don't normally gender-bend as a part of their powers, and this is a reference only. Hopefully, there are no Riley fans who'll take offense. And if so, sorry. It was necessary.

*****

Sam pulled his earbuds out as he stepped into the kitchen, ending his session with his favorite music.  Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and forearms and down his back.  He wanted a hot shower and clean clothes.  The workout with Steve had been good, but he wanted to stop being itchy and to collapse on the couch with the remote and some mindless cartoons. 

He looked around the island where Thor, Bruce, and Tony sat on barstools and pouted, pushing at slices of pizza, barely drinking the sodas in front of them, and didn’t even bother looking one another in the eyes. 

“What’s up?” he asked, and when only a funereal pall greeted him back, he worried that someone might have died. 

Sam yanked a bottle of water from the fridge, and when the trio still didn’t answer, he wandered out and left them to their epic sulk. 

In the living room, the ginormous TV was already on.  “What’s Opera, Doc,” played on one of the many channels.  Natasha watched it with a half-silly smirk on her face.  A smirk that disappeared as soon as Sam walked around on the other side of the couch.

Just to make sure that he actually saw  _Natasha Romanov_ watching cartoons. 

“Nat?” 

As he rounded the couch, he noticed the tiny form of the four-year-old, whose dark eyes tried to remain focused on the TV while simultaneously trying not to drift closed. 

“Hey, Nat.” 

She looked at Sam in that expressionless way that still managed to ask a billion questions. 

“Hey, Sam.  Seems you left something around the other guys, and they were attempting to break it,” Natasha informed him.  She didn’t even need to gesture at the little boy. 

Sam’s eyebrow went up. 

“Trying to break him?  What...”  He thought about the three long faces in the kitchen.  “...the he...ck did they do?” 

Natasha glanced over at the little boy then back at Sam. 

“Thor, Hulk, and Tony...in his Iron Man suit...were throwing this little boy around when I got home from Fury’s last mission,” she explained. 

Sam blinked and peeked around her to see if the boy looked bruised anywhere. 

“I took him away from them.  They whined.  A lot.” 

Now the pitiful display of grown men moping around the kitchen made sense. 

“Who’s the kid, Sam?  When did the Avengers stop asking for a driver’s license...or at least, an age check?  Fury won’t like this.”  Natasha’s way of speaking so monotone, as if she were more AI than human, still unsettled Sam at times, but that didn’t stop her from being one of his favorite people on the team. 

“Oh right.  Sorry.  I forgot you weren’t here when I brought him home.”  He sat down on the other side of Natasha and peeked over at the little boy again, and this time, he managed to get the kid’s attention away from the cartoon.  Before he could utter another word, the kid flung himself across Natasha’s lap and pummeled his little body right into Sam’s ribcage. 

“Daddy!”

Natasha’s eyes widened. 

“Daddy?  Sam, you never told us you had a kid.” 

Sam hugged the little cub against his chest and kissed the top of his head before shifting him around so he could hold him and so the boy could watch his cartoons. 

“When was there time, Nat?  We were fighting Hydra.  We were...collapsing an evil empire that still isn’t gone.  I didn’t want anyone to find out about him and use him against me, but recently, I thought maybe he’d be safer here than with his grandparents.” 

He could see the curiosity in her calculating stare. 

“My partner...when I was a pararescue...Riley.  She and I had this on-again, off-again...friends with benefits thing for years, and one of those benefits wound up being Tommy.  We both got leave for a bit to play parents, but then we were back up on the job.  Tommy stayed with her parents until recently,” Sam explained.  “I had to get my sh... _self_ together after she was killed before I even felt comfortable taking on the role of full-time dad, and then Hydra happened...the Triskelion...Steve in the hospital.  There just wasn’t time to think about it till now, Nat.” 

He rubbed his son’s back and smiled when the small creature leaned against him and started to become drifty again.  Sam watched Natasha’s face for any sign of disapproval or fight or any chance of softening into something resembling even the most remote maternal instinct.  He wasn’t surprised when she didn’t show it. 

“Okay.” 

“Okay?”

Natasha shrugged. 

“Okay.” 

Sam watched her.  He nodded. 

“Okay.” 

He looked down at Tommy, and then he stood up and scooped his little man with him, giving him a quick toss up into the air.  He caught him just as the boy squeal-giggled, and then he started to carry him out of the room toward his own to put him down for a nap. 

Sam hadn’t heard the other three shuffle in from the kitchen. 

He completely missed Tony’s pout.

“Hey.  Why does  _he_ get to throw the kid around and we don’t?” 

Natasha rolled her eyes and changed the channel. 


End file.
